Lan Sheng Szechuan Restaurant

Loved this place! The corn egg drop soup was absolutely perfect. The chow fun was good, if a little salty. The service was kind and quick and attentive.

Lan Sheng has always been in the shadow of Szechuan Gourmet to me as I’ve passed by it so many times on route to the other restaurant. So when Szechuan Gourmet slipped to a B rating, I decided to give it a try, curious. This is definitely a place that churns out solid Szechuan classics, if not quite up to the complex scale of flavors offered by their competition across the street. The first time I visited, we ordered the eggplant in spicy garlic sauce and the fish slices with green pepper. Both dishes were delicious, but the former seemed to be missing some kind of oomph that made it remarkable. It was something in the flavorings, perhaps that slight piquant tartness in a great garlic sauce that seemed to be absent, a certain sharpness of the flavors. And it was not spicy at all! The fish dish was a hit, but not spicy at all, which had us wondering what kind of sliced green peppers were used. Not bell peppers these were, but not jalapenos either, unless these had been sliced and soaked to remove some of the heat. The waiter had warned us this was a milder dish, which pleased my friend, who didn’t want a super spicy dish. It truly had no heat at all. The fish was fresh, delicately flavored and was definitely a dish I would order again. Portions for the fish and eggplant were generous. I returned after that pleasing experience, determined to try an authentic, spicy dish. I have to say I was disappointed. One of my fave dishes, sliced fish in napa with chili, was mild enough to have me wondering whether the cook had light hand with the chili in order to please the more American palate. Where were the numbing peppercorns, the upward facing chilis? To be fair, Lan Sheng only has a 1 chili next to dishes that it considers spicy, and doesn’t award more chilis to any dish. Maybe Lan Sheng just didn’t make very spicy Szechuan food. I also thought that particular dish lacked the richer meld of flavors in the same dish I would order from Szechuan Gourmet. This dish had garlic, and the requisite chili oil, but seemed to lack some intensity in all flavorings. The fish again was very fresh, perfectly cooked to the proper tenderness and the portion was enough for two. I have to say the rice, both times, was much better than the hard rice grains I usually got at Szechuan Gourmet. Service, fortunately, for both times was professional and even friendly the first time. So the verdict? Good food but for the heat and layered spiciness that I prefer, I think Lan Sheng needs more work to get out of the shadows.

There is nothing distinguishing on the exterior of the restaurant to elevate it from the other quick eateries around. Once you’re inside, it is only a slight upgrade in experience. It isn’t much different from other budget Asian restaurants. The simple redwood veneer and long aisle seating. Even the menu graphics look like the corner Chinese food handout.
Stuck with the braised fish and their special chicken off Lan Sheng’s Specialities portion of the menu. Fish filets were cooked perfectly. The fish itself was buttery, both in texture and flavor in sauce that is a bit on the oily side. A lot in terms of portion, enough for two people.
Chicken was cut up in tiny dry bits, but I liked the spicy sauce more than the dish above so it evened out.
Pass on the crab soup buns. Nothing special about them at all.
Like a lot of reviews, I didn’t believe this place had a Michelin Star. But I came for spicy szechuan and I did get some good spicy szechuan.

Authetic Szchuan food. The sour fish soup is tasty and the tofu and beef is also nice but with too much oil. We came late at night. The table service is not very good but the payment already includes tips around 15%.

This is one of the most authentic Chinese restaurants I know in the city. The service is so so but at the prices you pay for the food (cheaper than most NYC restaurants), it’s tolerable. My favorite appetizer is the Crab Soup Dumplings… they are just delicious and come out steaming hot! I highly recommend them!

If you like reallllllllll Szechuan food, here is the best place in Manhattan. Worth it! Michelin one star!

Lan Sheng for the first time in the U.S. made me worry whether I should eat cold food and risk food poisoning. I’ll admit, ordering the rabbit appetizer from a restaurant that got a B rating for cleanliness was bold, but beyond having a brain numbing amount of Beijing pepper which I love, there was not much to recommend it. Perhaps another day will be better. Considering how loudly the guy next to me is slurping his food, there MUST be SOMETHING good here.

I would give 4.5. A lot more authentic than other Szechuan restaurants I have tried so far.
Spicy duck tongue-​good. Tasty and chewy duck tongue with moderate level of spice.
Chilled noodles with spicy sesame vinaigrette-​delicious. Silky chilled noodles in flavorful spicy sauce.
Seafood tofu bisque-​good. Mild and rich flavor. Not much seafood. Tender tofu.
Lan Sheng dry-​broiled fish-​delicious. Best dish of the night. Extremely fresh fish. Flavorful with just the right amount of spice. Tasty garlic and tender scallions.
Braised pork with chestnuts-​very good. Fatty pork with well-​cooked chestnuts in flavorful brown sauce.
Hot spicy mixed pot-​above average. A lot of ingredients: vegetables include potatoes, lotus roots, garlic, mushrooms, kelp etc., and meats include fish fillets and spam. All well seasoned. Outstanding fish fillets due to their flavor and tenderness.
Rice ball in rice soup-​below average. Lacks the flavor of rice wine which is what makes the dish authentic. Chewy rice balls.
Rice– below average. Pretty dry.

If you only allowed me to use one sentence to describe my whole experience, I would say «O don’t know why this place had been a Michelin Star «
Location: it seems to be Chinese food street since so many good chinese restaurants located here. I tried the other two so I figured maybe I would try this one out.
It is pretty crowed. and if you want to make a reservation during lunch time, there’ s no lunch special here. FYI
lunch: they are specialized in Spicy chinese food. But we didn’t go for those food. We went for non-​spicy food. It was alright i guess? I mean it ‘s pretty much close to 朵颐
I would give a 3 star but this place treated customers like shit.
I am pretty upset about how they treated us and I cannot accept.

We had fish hot pot which was 90% oil and red peppers. Boring. Had anise seeds I had to crunch occasionally. Very little veg. Again very oily.

I don’t know why this place has a Michelin Star because both my friend and I thought the food was terrible and the service was unsatisfactory. We had lunch here during our one day trip to New York. We were hoping for some authentic Chinese food as it seems to receive good reviews on its authenticity. But we were so disappointed at this place because the waiter serving us was really rude at us when we told him one of the dishes was not cooked thoroughly. We could still taste some blood flavor in our food. He did not apologize and he returned with another plate of the same food, except that all the meat were gone! All that left were just some veges! We called him back and asked him where were all of the meat. He left with the plate and later told us that was the wrong one, he would serve us another plate of the same food.
It is just shocking to me that a restaurant with one Michelin Star would do this to their customers. I would not recommend this place to my friends if they are looking for an authentic Chinese restaurant with some respect for their customers.

this is where I usually go when I am craving for sechuan style spicy food. Authentic spicy food, love love love it!

This place is awesome! I think they have the best «numb» of all the Sichuan restaurants around this area. I got the Chongqing spicy chicken which is one of my go tos and favorite dishes and I think it’s better than both Sichuan Gourmet and Café China’s. That’s saying a lot. I also got the string beans with minced meat and that was good too (but not super delicious mostly because the string beans were a little overlooked. I like mine crispy with a crunch).
I really appreciated how fast their delivery is. It took about 20 mins after I called to get the food. That’s awesome! Will try more dishes next time. Hope they don’t disappoint.

We reserved a nine people table for a friend’s birthday. The boss made a special Chinese «long life noodle» for him, and it was delicious. The boss was nice and recommanded some dishes which satisfied our expections for Szechuan food.
1. Braised Fish Filets & Napa Cabbage with Roasted Chili: If you like spicy seafood, this is the right one for you. The fish is tender and not too spicy.
2. Hot Spicy Mix Pot: This one is not as good as others. It has lots of oil.
3. Hot and Spicy Frog: I personally don’t like frogs, but I love the mushrooms and konjak (魔芋) inside.
4.Lamb Stew: It is good for people to eat during fall. It is not spicy.
5. The boss recommanded a dish which contains pork, buns, and pickled Chinese cabbage. I don’t remember the name, but it taste yummy.

I always order from here on Seamless — Mapo Tofu is my go-​to. They get the level of numbness in Chinese spicy cuisine just right. However, it seems like the «less oil» memo never gets passed to the chef.
I have been to this restaurant before but was with a large group of people /​didn’t really pay close attention to service or food.
This time, I came on a Saturday around lunch time. The place is completely empty — a stark contrast to how filled it seems to be on week days thanks to their lunch specials menu. When we were seated, I noticed that there was a large group of Chinese girls — around 10 or so — celebrating a birthday. The owner (or at least that’s how the girls referred to him when they talked) were joking around with the girls about discounts and birthday cakes and whatnot. Which, while I understand could happen on a slow day, I did not find it anywhere near professional. It’s particularly off-​putting when the service was already slow and the owner is clearly just there chatting up girls.
To expand on the service, it is extremely slow, even when we were one of the four groups dining. I had to wave down the waiter, twice, to order and ask questions. Food also took a while even though we only ordered 2 dishes — Mapo Tofu and Szechuan Covered Pork.
The food was definitely worth the Michelin star — authentic to say the least. However, I always feel like there should be a level of attentive service to complement the food. That aspect of my dining experienced did not check off.

Delicious Szechuan cuisine, I haven’t had authentic «ma la» spice in a long time!
The ma po tofu was fantastic, very soft tofu and rich Sichuan spice (though don’t get the mouthful with all of the black flecks, would be too much to enjoy for most people).
I loved the cold appetizer beef tendon dish, done very well and nice cold spice.
The Singaporean spicy mai fun rice noodle dish was unexpected on the menu but good complement to the other spice and oily dishes.
I think it’s hard to do veg wrong, the spinach w ginger dish was good, liked the cold appetizer
The crab and shrimp dumpling came out at the end, which is my only complaint — we had a hard time finishing it after all of the other dishes, but good food nonetheless
About $ 20 per person for a very filling meal for three incl tax and tip.

I came here with no expectations — apparently they have a Michelin star. My brother literally lives right across the street so we came for lunch and I thought the food was pretty good. Flavors were on point, it wasn’t too greasy… we ordered the ma po tofu, a fish dish (I think it was ginger fish or something like that…) and sauteed bok choy. I tend to steer away from Chinese food because I feel like it’s too heavy and greasy for me, but after my meal I didn’t feel gross.
I really liked the ma po tofu… the flavor was really interesting; I hadn’t tasted this kind of ma po tofu before. I would come back here next time I’m in the area.
Service wasn’t memorable; I’d say very typical Chinese restaurant. They take your order, bring food out quickly, and don’t talk to you until you ask for the check. Can’t complain; I don’t go to Chinese restaurants for the service anyways.

There’s surprisingly a lot of szechuan restaurants on 39^th street! Compared to Szechuan Gourmet, this one is less packed and the crowd is a little more… authentic…
I like that they serve a nice tea here, but you have to ask for water and glasses. Service is disjointed but that’s not out of the ordinary.
I usually go for Fish Filets in Chili Sauce, Cumin Lamb, and some kind of vegetable. I liked everything but it wasn’t as good as what you’d find in Chinatown or Flushing (DUH). Anything with Chili or Cumin will usually have lots of peppercorn and numbing spices so make sure to order rice. Great for family style with a group!

Hmm pretty good Chinese food here, with some unique lil’ twists to their dishes! We ordered a ton of food, including the:
house special fried rice-​which consisted of pork, onion, scallions and eggs
beef chow fun-​I liked the beef!
special braised pork-​it came with four pork buns you assemble yourself
mushrooms-​these were super thin, I think they were called «tea mushrooms» or something, since they looked like tea leaves
twice cooked pork-​pretty tasty pork!
And of course, they give you a pot of tea to start off with. The restaurant itself is pretty spacious, clean, and has comfortable booths to sit in!

Do yourself a favor and DO NOT order from Lan Sheng. I don’t care if this place has a Michelin Star because not only was the service horrendous, but the food tasted disgusting and was unsanitary.
I ordered through Seamless at 9:30AM (before the restaurant opened) for delivery at 12:30PM. I gave them a call at 12:50PM because I haven’t received the food. The lady picked up the phone and immediately put me on hold for 2 minutes. She answered again, and when I explained the situation, she said the delivery guy had left 20 minutes ago and just hung up. That was pretty rude, but whatever. My office is just 3 blocks from the restaurant, but maybe he was doing other deliveries as well.
I still didn’t get my food at 1:10PM, so I called Seamless directly. They put me on hold for 5 minutes while resolving the issue with Lan Sheng. They just told me the delivery guy was on his way. Finally at 1:25PM, I got a call from the delivery guy letting me know he is in the lobby. When I went down, he wasn’t there. I waited 5 minutes in the lobby until he FINALLY showed up with the food that had gotten cold by now.
I was very hungry, so excited to eat. Unfortunately, the food was inedible. Not only was it cold, but Chow Fun with Chicken that I ordered had absolutely no sauce. I asked for the dish to be LITTLE OIL and NO MSG, and they just gave me plain steamed chicken and noodles with no seasoning whatsoever. I ended up putting two packets of soy sauce and five packets of salt into the overcooked, dry noodles and chicken.
The Lunch Special came with a bowl of wanton soup. The two pieces of wantons were basically just flour pieces. Gross.
THE WORST PART ABOUT THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE? I found a piece of hair in the noodles about midway through eating. Absolutely disgusting.